Business
Does tech lean left or right? Thoughtful comments by ZDNet readers
This is what makes a column on technology, politics, civics, and government so interesting, valuable, and important.
Yesterday, I ran an article about whether the tech industry leans more to the left or to the right.
On its own, it was an interesting article. But where it became fascinating is when you start to read the really intelligent, constructive, and thought-providing comments from ZDNet readers who added their opinions via TalkBack.
Here are some selected lines from the overall TalkBack stream:
- Gcomputeronet: Sounds about right, though generalizations don't necessarily hold everywhere. I think tech in general is just an average mix like the US.
- Userama: Would it help if I told you that I consider myself a liberal, arty, Apple-using hippy freak?
- technology@: Another possible reading into this set of numbers is that the tech industry sees the general arc of policy behavior of one party as being more rational or predictable than the other. I can't see that being the case, since venality is a popular trait on both sides of the aisle.
- mickibh: Every day, at least once a day, when I answer the phone I am greeted with "Oh, I wanted the tech department." And I tell them I am part of the tech department. And I want to add "even though I am a female".
- rocket ride: But no, we just get the congressional kabuki, maybe some chump-change civil penalties, and a new set of bloated regulations ostensibly designed to put G-S and the other big firms "in their place".
- rarsa: How can you correlate a president's performance with his/her popularity? It is that kind of thinking that prevents presidents from making the right decisions in favor of the politically palatable ones.
There's more and each of the statements above should be read in their entirety. This was a good, healthy, polite, constructive, and above-all, interesting discussion among ZDNet readers.